We'll be looking at 2 Peter 3 to introduce us to our text in 1 Thessalonians, which we've been considering. So you can begin turning to 2 Peter. Then after 2 Peter, of course, goes 1, 2, 3, John, Jude, and Revelation. So it's about five or six books in from the very back of your Bible. And if you don't have a Bible this morning, there's one in the pew in front of you that you can follow along. But 2 Peter 3. We need to answer the question together this morning, which is phrased thusly, what's next? As we look into the scriptures, we find that God desires for us to know what is going to happen next. He desires for us to know what he is doing. And he desires for us to have a knowledge and not to be ignorant and in unbelief of his hand in this world. And St. Peter, in his third chapter of his second epistle, The third and fourth verse aptly describes the attitude so many people have toward what the scriptures prophetically give us. In the past few weeks, we've seen some amazing world-shaking events. America sends down the largest airborne troop movement that we have done for years down and invades Panama. The Russian borders are opened, and we see Christian ministries springing up inside of the Soviet Union. The people of Berlin are no longer encircled. They're free now to come and go at will. Romania is humbled. One of the most totalitarian of the states is crushed. Israel is increasingly threatened. And America, amazingly, has been catapulted into a place of, again, springing up democracies around this world. And we ask the question, what's going to happen next? And how does all this fit into what the scriptures say? Well, when we get into prophecy, and as we see in 2 Peter 3, 3 and 4, there's an attitude that crops up. Let me read you these two verses and then share a few things briefly with you this morning to get prophecy and perspective of what's coming up next. Peter says this, verse 3. Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lust, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." You have probably read, you've probably heard, and you've probably seen in various places the innumerable prophetic utterances I know that if you shop at the supermarkets, you'll see Jeanne Dixon and Company's prophecies for the next year on all those cheap newspapers that they sell at the checkout counters. All of those usually turn out to be so vague and so unspecific that they could possibly happen, and they possibly couldn't, and you would never know whether they did or not. And the rest of them usually are so absurd that they never happen. So to many people, prophecy is something that you ignore. because they're foolish predictions. Or, as we see right here in verses 3 and 4, that many people say, nothing has changed. Because of evolution and that false theory thereof, they say everything has just continued edging onward with no drastic change, just a gradual change. Therefore, everything continues just as it was from the beginning. Well, the scriptures say that there are some very specific dangers for us to avoid when we look at prophecy. Let me share those with you in light of what Peter is warning us about here, and then continue on with some other important items from this before we go to 1 Thessalonians. The first danger we should avoid is the danger of setting dates and making dogmatic declarations that aren't based on the scripture. That's very dangerous to say that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to return in 1979. I remember hearing a man say that. And I have to tell you that he didn't return in 1979. Then another said that he was coming in 1992. We shall wait to see that. But I can almost tell you that if they pick a day and an hour, that they'll be wrong. Because the Lord says in such an hour as we think not, he will come. The first danger is of setting dates and dogmatically alluding to things that aren't in the scriptures. Another danger to avoid is the danger of making the study of prophecy an end in itself. And we've gone through an era of that in America, where prophetic conferences and prophetic books and prophetic meetings and prophetic everything, it was kind of like the movement where all of a sudden we find ourselves with ties that are too wide or pants that have too bright checks or skirts that are the wrong style because it went out of vogue. That's not prophecy. Prophecy is not making the study the end of all. It's the means to an end. The third danger we must avoid is constantly spending our time answering questions that no one is asking. We must be relevant, and the Scriptures are. Look again at 2 Peter, because there are two doubts that must be dispelled when we think of prophecy. The first one here is the doubt of uniformitarianism. You say, what? Well, right there in verse 4, it says, all things continue just as it was. That's not true. The skeptics say that everything from the beginning of matter and time has never been interrupted. But look at verse 4. As it says, from the beginning of creation, things have not all been the same. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice, verse 5, that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, and that through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. The world believes that things have evolved and there's been a basic flow uniformly throughout time. God says that's not so. He said there was a time when nothing existed but God. There was a moment that God intervened and began time and space and matter as we know it. There is a second time that he intervened and he destroyed life on this planet as we know it, except for Noah, his family, and one of every unclean creature and seven pairs of every clean creature on this gargantuan boat that God designed for him. And because of that, God says in verse 5 and verse 6 that the doubts that the skeptics give us that all things will remain the same because they always have remained the same is doubly wrong. Things have not remained the same because God created from nothing this universe in a moment of time God brought this earth to its knees in a flood, which was his judgment. And he said, there's another judgment coming. Don't believe. And don't have the doubt that God will not intervene prophetically in the future. But now let's look at what all of us enjoy. Because not only are there some dangers that we must avoid and we shall, we won't be dogmatic unless the scriptures are dogmatic. We won't talk about things and place dates because the Scriptures tell us not to, we won't have doubts that God will intervene because He has told us He will, and He has in the past. But our last consideration this morning are some events to await. Seven successive events that are either present right now or shall come, which the Scriptures refer to in very clear and very unmistakable ways. First of all, God's program in this world at this time is the Church. Matthew 18 and Matthew 16, the two references in the Gospels to the Church, tell us, number one, the Church was purchased by Jesus. Before He left the earth, He promised that He would personally be building His Church, and that's what He's doing right now. This is the Church of Jesus Christ at Quidnesset. You who sit here this morning, you are purchased possessions of Jesus Christ if you've come to know Him. personally. That is God's program. The second aspect of that program is that the Holy Spirit is equipping. And it says in Romans 12 and Ephesians 4 that the promise which began at Pentecost continues to this day that instead of having one lone prophet, God has now made us an entire kingdom of priests and a holy nation. All of us individually have been equipped, we have been and filled, we have been indwelt by God the Father through his spirit to portray Jesus Christ in this whole world. That is God's program. Finally, this church is kept by God. Those who are called out by Christ become a part of his universal body, the church, and will be preserved as a unit in this world until his purposes for that church have been completed. So if you want to know where you are in prophetic history, you are in this very important moment of time when God's program for this world is, instead of preaching the everlasting gospel by an angel, that's coming, instead of sending a lone prophet into this world, such as Moses and such as those prophets of the Old Testament, God has raised all of us up to give the good news of Jesus Christ and to live the goodness of Jesus Christ out through our lives. Well, the second part of God's plan, and that which is drawing us to 1 Thessalonians. And if you'll turn back there to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, because the very next event which the apostles were looking for, which the first century church was looking for, which those earliest church fathers were looking for, and which has been the hope of all who have known Jesus Christ and have looked into his word throughout the centuries since he ascended into heaven, is given for us in 1 Thessalonians 4, in verses 13 through 17. And just to show you how much the people were looking for this, Paul says in verse 13, we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep. Already after Paul had ministered to this group of people in such a brief time between his ministering in Thessalonica and his leaving and writing back to them, some of those early saints had died. And they were so expectant of what he had talked about in chapter 1, verse 10, in chapter 2, verse 19, in chapter 3, verse 13. They were so anticipating that, that when someone died, they started getting very sad. And they said, we've just laid to rest, as we shall soon, Doris Kornfield. What about Doris? What about all those saints in Thessalonica that have been buried? They're going to miss the return of Christ because that's what they were looking for. Well, that's what he's addressing in verse 13. That you may not grieve, in the middle of the verse, as the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Christians don't die. They fall asleep in Jesus. For the Lord Himself will descend, verse 16, from heaven with a shout in the voice of the archangel, the dead in Christ that have been laid to rest asleep will be the first ones out and the first ones up. And then the rest of us will be snatched up into his presence. What's the second aspect of God's plan? What is the very next thing that will prophetically happen in this world? Not the Antichrist. Not the coalition in Europe. Not the beast showing up. Not the great apostasy totally taking over. We don't look for any sign. There is no sign waiting for us to be seen before Christ comes back. Because Jesus Christ could come back from the moment that he left until this very moment at any instant in time. Paul said, we are expecting that eagerly. In fact, he said, for we which are alive and remain. In verse 15, he expected to be alive and remaining for Christ's return, because that's how fervent the hope was. What is this called? Well, it says here, verse 17, then we who are alive and remain shall be, and there's that very amazing word that has caused so much discussion in the church, and it's the word harpazo, which means to be snatched or grabbed or stolen from the midst of. It's used often in the New Testament of someone coming and grabbing something and running away with it. And it says here in verse 17 that Jesus Christ is not going to come and touch the earth. He's only coming in the clouds. And He, through His divine power, is going to snatch out of this world those who know Him personally. That, theologically, has been called the rapture. Biblically, it's called the coming of the Lord for the saints. That's the second aspect of God's program. Dead believers will be raised first. Living believers will then be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord. The very next aspect is in Second Corinthians 510, and I'll read it to you. You don't have to turn there unless you want to. It says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. In that instant begins the judgment of the lives of believers. That's why Paul exhorted these people to be ready for the Lord's return. The third event in God's prophetic calendar is, after the church age ends, after Jesus Christ removes from this world those who are his, he begins the examination of those people. It's designed for believers, and it only deals with rewards, not with salvation. If you are going to know the Lord Jesus Christ personally, you will know him here. You won't be judged for that and determined whether or not you make that in some later future time. It's right now that we must decide for Him before He comes or calls. Well, real quickly, the fourth event is God's wrath. And as soon as God pulls out from this world all those who are His, then the Scriptures tell us that God begins His time of wrath. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5. Right after chapter 4 tells us the church is snatched out of this world, chapter 5 tells us what begins to happen in the world. One of the most powerful and convincing proofs for the fact that we shall not go through the time of tribulation is just the sequence the Scriptures give us of when that tribulation begins. Chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians, the dead in Christ and the living in Christ are removed from the world. Chapter 5, He begins this, now as for the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While they are saying, peace and safety, then destruction will come upon who? Them. Not us. God has not appointed us to wrath, his scriptures tell us. God has not appointed us to bear the wrath that he is going to put on this world. What is that wrath going to be? a seven-year period of time on earth that will occur that will be the most tremendous chaos this world has ever known. Satan will be unrestrained. He will establish an unholy trinity. He will be in the place of God the Father. At his right hand will be a man called the Beast in Revelation 13. He will make peace with Israel, and can't you see that coming as we are hastening toward disarmament around our world? He will bring a unity and a prosperity to the world. He will place on his followers a particular mark without which they will not be able to buy or sell. Don't we see that coming? As now they're talking about a cashless society when everyone has a number that a barcode, that a scanner could read. You'll never have to be robbed again because you'll never carry money again. How prepared our society is for this. And the false prophet, the beast's right-hand man, will be a deceiver. In place of the Holy Spirit, he will draw together the world under one great unified religion and government. And in the midst of all that, God begins hurling down his wrath. And in three and a half short years, 42 months, from the middle point of the tribulation to the end, God will destroy one out of every two living human beings on this earth. One half of the world's population will die. in a terrible cataclysmic outpouring of successive plagues. The climax is, of course, in Revelation chapter 16, the word all of us have heard, the place that many of us have seen, Ha-Armageddon, where the final conflagration of this world will break out in one of the most perfect battlegrounds. Starting in verse 13, Armageddon unfolds, and we will look at that. This climax is the tribulation period And the fifth aspect of God's prophetic plan is the divine intervention that takes place at that moment. As the first coming of Christ, He came as a babe. The second coming of Christ, He will come as a king. And Christ intervenes with great power and He comes to conquer this world. And if you read in Revelation 19, it talks about the fact in verse 11 that He comes on a white horse With faithful and true written on him, he comes and his eyes are aflame. He cuts down the nations of the world, and this babe comes back as a king. The suffering lamb in the first advent returns as the Lion of Judah to conquer this world. Christ, who came the first time for a cross, returns the second time wearing a crown. He comes the first time in obscurity. He returns the second time in blazing light. And all the world sees Him and mourns and grieves. And they seek to have the rocks fall down upon them because His glory they cannot hide from. He came the first time to seek the lost. But when He comes the second time, He is sealing the doom of all who have rejected Him. This is in great detail talked about in Matthew 24. We see that Christ judges the earth. All those who are left alive go through a judgment called the sheep and the goat judgment. That's in Revelation 19, 11 through 16. You can read about it. Matthew 25, it talks about it. Unbelievers will be judged, removed from the earth, cast into a holding place of punishment until the ultimate judgment. And thus ushers the last aspect of the second advent, which is the beginning of the kingdom of God. What's amazing is that more than one-fifth of the Old Testament is about the millennial kingdom that God's going to set up. And the reason why many people have great difficulty with a lot of the Old Testament is it doesn't have anything to do with us. It has everything to do with the future reign of Jesus Christ, literally, on this earth for 1,000 years. If you want to read about that, one of the first descriptions of it is in Isaiah chapter 11. It will last 1,000 years. Satan will be bound, as it says in Revelation 20. An angel comes down, verse 1, having a key and binds the evil deceiver for 1,000 years. Those who were put to death during the tribulation reign on the earth. The curse is removed from the earth, and the environment will be perfect again. Let me say that again. The environment will be perfect again. If you are very concerned about the environment, The most important thing that you and I can do to make the environment perfect again is to point people to the one who is going to come and restore this earth. The earth will again be rolled back from the curse of sin and there will not be carnivorous animals, there will not be poisonous serpents or reptiles or spiders. The earth will again be in a near perfect state. Christ will reign as the righteous judge and the heart of man will be revealed that without divine intervention, it will not change. For what happens at the end of that time? Revelation 27-9 says, Satan is released after the thousand years, he comes, he deceives the world, the world follows after him, and God says, that's enough. And God's conclusion is seen in Revelation 20 verses 10-15, as he takes the earth, 2 Peter 3 says He burns it with fire. In that text we were at previously, all unbelievers will be judged and cast into the lake of fire. And Revelation 21 and 22 say that eternity will begin. That is the future, my friend, in seven successive steps. The church, the rapture, the judgment of saints, the tribulation period, which is coming on this earth, the second coming of Christ in power to judge, to bring the earth into subjection, the great battle of Armageddon, the conclusion when God seals this earth into the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, And at the end of that time, God consummates history and ends time and begins eternity. I ask you this, what's next? Well, if you know Jesus Christ, if you have the Son, good things are coming. What's next? If you don't know Jesus Christ, if you have not the Son of God, then you're facing, perhaps in your lifetime, the most horrendous era in the history of mankind. And at the end of that time, death, eternal fire, brimstone, and the horrors of hell. And God said, that's our choice. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. What's next? God has it planned out. Have you enacted your part in his plan for the future? Let's bow for a word of prayer. Thank you, dear Father. This morning, that your word is so clear, thank you that you tell us to watch for that day with eagerness to anticipate the day of your coming for us. Your coming for this world will be a horrible time, a time when men's hearts shall fail them for fear. But your coming for us in a moment, in an instant of time, to snatch us out of this world is our blessed hope. Thank you for promising you shall save us from your wrath to come. Thank you for giving us the program for the future. Let us live in expectancy of it in the days to come as we examine it more closely and see what our part is to be. And we'll bless your name for Jesus' sake. Amen.